Field
The present disclosure relates to multiple-platform computing, and in particular to synchronizing installed applications among computing devices that are based on different platforms.
Description of Related Art
A variety of personal computing devices are available today, and many users have more than one computing device, to be used according to the circumstances. For example, a user may have a desktop computer with a large keyboard and screen for the office or at home, a notebook computer for traveling, and a mobile telephone to carry on his person as he goes about his daily routine.
Often, a user may desire to access the same content and functionalities via different computing devices. For example, a user may want to have his address book accessible via his desktop computers, portable computer, and mobile telephone; his work files and applications to be accessible also from home; and his electronic books accessible for reading via all his computing devices.
There are two common approaches for allowing users to access their content across a variety of computing devices: the first approach is routine synchronization, where content files added or updated on one device are copied to the other devices via device-to-device communication; the second approach is storing the user's content on a server (AKA in the cloud, and accessing that content from all computing devices via Web browsers or dedicated applications.
Users benefit not only from having access to content, which includes collections of data, but also from applications, which offer functionalities via user interfaces that allow the user to benefit from those functionalities. Applications are generally implemented as computer-executable code that is specific to a particular computing device and/or operating system. Therefore, saying that the same application is installed on different computing devices is taken to mean that the same or similar program title, functionalities, and user interface are common to the different computing devices, while the respective computer-executable code may be different for each computing device. Functionalities and user interfaces may be similar yet different across computing devices, due to different characteristics of the physical input and output devices, processing power, and communication capabilities.
With a flood of application and computing device offerings, users may often lose track of the applications installed on their different computing devices, and thus lack certain desired functionalities when they need or want them, or when updates are available for different platform versions of an installed application. Other users may find the routine installation of applications on multiple computing devices time consuming and inconvenient.